Fridays track layout

[KC]

I have designed the track for the next carpet rounds if thats ok with everyone.
Nice and flowing with plenty of room for racing on.

[Malcolm Williams]

E bye gum

[John Lindsay]

Having difficulty negotiating difficult tracks Kenny?

Why not remove the middle bit and just have an oval?


John

[scotty]

Lol...................

[stephen whyte]

Good stuff Kenny - it good to have some ideas from other drivers!!

It might be a good idea if you or some others can come up with a couple of other good carpet tracks and use them together with a couple of the better ones I have done, put them together and use them as the database for next year. This, as has been suggested previously, would make thing so much easier and would allow more people to put the tracks together on a Friday night. A single photo of each track put in a "club" folder would mean any member of the club could build the tracks - it does get a bit frustrating when you see the same 4 or 5 people building the track every week...............

[KC]

I will try and get a few more tracks designed on my trusty etch a sketch and will be out early to build it with Stevie etc.

The key to a good track is making it flow. Trying to get too technical in a small space only makes things congested and the racing suffers.

As for your comment John, I would probably still have difficulty going round an oval.
Maybe I need to spend some time reading Malc's setup bible?

[stephen whyte]

Totally agree with the "fast flowing" suggestion and I have tried to achieve that for the carpet tracks with the last 2 or 3 layouts.
However I would say that a more technical track works well with the "wood" surface in a hall our size. Actually Scott and I had this discussion on Friday and came to the same conclusion.
I think we are getting there with the track layouts but another couple for the database will be more than welcome. Thanks for your input Kenny, hopefully it will encourage some others to do the same.

I think the suggestion of approx. 5 tracks for each surface as was mentioned before would be more than sufficient for the racing year. I personally really like the idea of having a list of "tracks that are liked and produce great racing". For example I had some really positive feedback for the last wood track and thought it was just right for allowing good close racing and had a layout that flowed and allowed drivers to create a rhythmn every lap - which I would imagine is what we are all looking for....................

[KC]

Heres a suggestion for next years racing that we can vote on at the AGM.

How about we change the format slightly by running the same track but change direction.

Week 1 - Counterclockwise

Week 2 - Clockwise

Week 3 - Counterclockwise

It would make racing on the same layout for 3 weeks running a bit more interesting.

Just a thought.

[ross minimad]

what lap time does a track like that generate?? must be ridiculously short! I can't believe that you can drive around a track that looks that boring for 5 minutes without falling asleep

[KC]

Well dust off your tourer and come and show us how its done hotshot!

[scotty]

He won't be there, once he started getting owned in the tourers he jumped to the Buggies lol, only joking Rossy Boy..........

[frickinevilpaint]

That track looks like what we used to race mardave minis round in a hall the size of the stage area you have at the bowhouse! I always thought that the more corners on a track the greater the differential between those who can take corners and those not quite as good!

[KC]

Another one comes out the woodwork!
Talk is cheap punk, if you still have a car come along and show us your skills.

All this trash talking is like something out of the wrestling!

It took me hours to design that circuit.

How about this one instead then?

[KC]

Good track layout last night.
Shame about some of the brutal driving.
Perhaps we need to look at changing the ruling on motors at the end of the year as its clear there are drivers that cant control their cars with 10.5 motors.

[stephen whyte]

Kenny, I think you should know that not everyone thought the track was a success and I think the layout was partly to blame for alot of the erratic driving. The track was just too fast for the speed of the cars and there was just no room for error - for anyone!! (I also helped with this track and take the opinions of others onboard too.............)

There was quite a few members with negative comments and some people have asked that the track be changed for next week. I personally think that it should be left as it is not fair on those who liked it such as yourself and we have never changed any of the crap tracks I have designed. I quite liked it but felt as if I was always seconds away from being part of a crash and think it needs adjusting.

With the design as it was we were carrying too much speed through the outside of the track due to the flat-out speed right round the top, side and bottom of the track. Personally I think it is much harder to get the right track design on carpet and I feel the suggestion of coming up with 6 "carpet" tracks for the year (as mentioned previously on other related posts) is perhaps not practical. 6 designs for Wood on the other hand should not be a problem. The best carpet track I have seen, for the size of the hall, was the one that was shaped in an "S" layout. With this one all the speed was kept to the inside of the track and there were far fewer accidents. I think we need to remember just how small and square the hall really is and it does have its limits.

Kenny, I think you know as a result of converstaions we have had, that this is not "sour grapes" from me just because I didn't design the track - my objective together with yours is to come up with tracks that everyone enjoys and create a database for the club of these tracks that anyone can build. So please keep providing your ideas and I will do likewise and hopefully together along with others contributions we will get there. For what it is worth I have designed around 10 tracks over the last year or so and I would say that only 3 or 4 should be kept to be used on a regular basis.

Let me know what your thoughts are on using the track we used on Friday next week, maybe it just needs tweaking to keep "everybody" happy..................

If others out there could contibute to this post instead of sitting there saying nothing!!

Anyway i am away to get a life as this is poor show sitting writing this on a Saturday night -I hate when there is nothing organised for a Sat night...............................

[Malcolm Williams]

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed last nights track,although carpet racing is never as much fun as wood racing.I was running 13.5 and a 19t pinion so speed was not an issue,still managed 25 laps in two heats.I know that a least one other driver I my heats was running 13.5 and he made it into the B final.How about the cars being checked out before the first heat to check they will run,turn,steer straight etc.Well thats my bit said,however we have two types of people to keep happy within the club,thoose who race for fun and thoose who are there to win.

Well said Les regarding the two types of club racer, but overall I think the general standard is slowly improving.

I agree with Stephen regarding the track design, it was a fast but enjoyable track which with a few tweeks like maybe some rope sweeping bends to smooth out the tight corners would help.

Maybe a notch type chicane like the one we had on the wood tracks main straight would slow it down if speed is deemed to be responsible for the erratic driving.

I personally would include last Fridays track when tweeked in the database.

Why not compile a database of track layouts for voting on on this site and in the club for those with out website access, just a thought.:)

[Malcolm Williams]

Stephen, good track layout Friday IMHO, see my reply to Mr Yellow also

[mike tr]

Well done to Kenny for the layout. Thought it was tough but yet enjoyable.

Was not as challenging as the layout you posted earlier in the week. I was hoping for hod it and dod it to come along and take you up with the challenge. Maybe next week they will show up.

[scotty]

LOL superb post. I thought the track on Friday was really good and only needed the entrance and exit of the straight changed slightly to make the corners more sweeping. That's about it i think......
Totally agree that we need to maybe just have a database with 6 tracks in it and then go forward from here...........
Thanks for your time.......

[KC]

The bottom line is, if any driver finds a track difficult then the first thing they should do is either drive more carefully or slow the car down so they can get round without crashing.
I had 1 crash on friday which resulted in my car getting mangled by other cars but apart from that I had no problems with either the speed of the track or the layout.
A track is only as challenging as you make it for yourself and consistency is the key to fast times.

[Dave]

I think that even if we have 3 tracks and use on rotation it would be good.

No point running 3 tracks that are not as good and cause crashes.

[Maxxed_Ross]

The bottom line is, if any driver finds a track difficult then the first thing they should do is either drive more carefully or slow the car down so they can get round without crashing.
I had 1 crash on friday which resulted in my car getting mangled by other cars but apart from that I had no problems with either the speed of the track or the layout.
A track is only as challenging as you make it for yourself and consistency is the key to fast times.


I totally agree.... for years I had the same problem of having to build the track virtually on my own

If you don't like it, feel free to help out next time :mrgreen:


You don't see them moving corners at Knockhill because a few drivers can't go round it :-D

[Dave]

You don't see them moving corners at Knockhill because a few drivers can't go round it :-D

They would if BTCC, the motorbikes etc never came and raced there but the thing is the hall does not change in shape or size so there are limitations so we need to give in and get as many good tracks as we can and then use them.

Then we can get BBK setup to run the tracks so we can see how we are improving week on week and year on year as it can give you a page of all the drivers and their best on each track.